Question,advice,story..not Sure Which This Is?

[MAT_8N]

Ok so a bit of background on our car, its a 2004 RX300 SE-L bought 2 1/2 years ago from lexus with the pre owned thing. It had 35k miles with full history 1 owner. Now has full history 49k miles.

Last night the abs, parking brake light and vsc light came on. I disconnected the Battery to reset eveything and it was all fine when i took it round the town for a spin in the snow, all electrics beeping and buzzing as it sorted itself out.

Today taking my son to school all the lights come back on so i phoned my local lexus dealer who said take it straight down for a look. Got there and they said it needed a bit more of a look than the plug in and check stuff so they ran me home.

About 45 minutes later i get a call and he says, bit of bad news, the part is £5300!!!(appprox),its the brake actuator or something and the snow that was on the car has melted, dripped down through somewhere near the windscreen(saying maybe it had had a new screen at some point? would that not show up anywhere on the history? or will the screen have an original stamp on it?) onto some wires corroding the actuator and some other bits and bobs.

Yet he goes on to say that that is a high price and because of the age of the car(dont know if he meant old or not that old?) he had been on to the phone to lexus head office and they have offered to give us the part free!! and the local dealer have discounted the labour so all in total price is £598.65..........great!!

Or is it?

The car has been parked in the snow, its in mint condition, full service, low usage and yet its costing us £600 for getting snow on it? And how come lexus offered to give us something worth £5k+ without asking or any questions within 45 minutes? discounted labour charges too??

Now dont get me wrong, i know lexus have a good reputation for good customer relations but to me it seems as if what has happened shouldn't have happened(i know things do go wrong). It seems to me like they are making it look like they are offering a fantastic deal when maybe its not? The dealer did say they would 'MAKE SURE' that it wouldn't happen again after i joked about getting a car cover from argos!

Obviously i started to think these after i got of the phone and over the enitial £5k+ bill i thought i was getting, but again these knock you down then build you up again ploys are used to hide the truth.

Am i synical, getting a good deal or being taken for a ride?

What do you think?

Ta

Matt

[MAT_8N]

I rang lexus with my concerns and apparently its a goodwill gesture as we are good customers, buying and servicing at the dealers.

so its all good B)